I was admiring my friend’s newly-furnished home when I caught sight of six sleek chairs placed around her dining room table. “Where did you get those?” I asked. They looked straight out of a Scandinavian interiors Pinterest board, all light wood and woven cord. I knew she’d wanted nice stuff, but couldn’t imagine her going all out on chairs – and these looked expensive. “You’ll never guess,” she answered. “Aldi.”
They were replicas of Danish designer Hans J. Wegner’s iconic Wishbone Chair, she explained – still quality-made (she’s since had them a year with no visible wear and tear) and, as I can attest to, stylish. But forget the $329 price tag – my friend had scored the knock-offs for $74 a pop.
They’re just one of the many, many in-demand Special Buy items the German supermarket drops every week. Among the other limited-time products to crop up this year? French linen sheet sets, robot vacuums and even a dupe range of luxury skincare brand La Prairie, which featured products all under $20.
The only problem with the Special Buys is that they’re usually so good they’re often hard to get. More often than not, heading into a store on a Thursday or Sunday, just a day after the Special Buys’ Wednesday and Saturday drops, you’ll find the products already sold out. Which is why when I discovered Aldi had quietly added a Stock Checker page to its site sometime back in December, I felt compelled to share the news.
Likely set up after Aldi came under fire when its Special Buys caused crowding at the height of the pandemic (remember the Air Fryer?), the tracker page lets you enter the product name and postcode to check which Aldi in your area still has stock.
The only catch is, you can’t check until 24 hours after the stock’s gone on sale. Which means if you did want to guarantee getting an item, it’s still recommended you visit the store the same day it drops. To find out about the Special Buys, sign up to the newsletter here.
Happy shopping.
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